3-DIMENSIONAL FINITE-ELEMENT FORMULATION FOR MICROELASTIC SOLIDS

Materials with microstructure have long been known to display a different mechanical behavior than those materials considered classically elastic. To account for these differences, a microelastic model can be used to describe the behavior of these latticed materials. This model has six material constants, as opposed to only two constants found in classical elasticity, and extra degrees of freedom. A three-dimensional microelastic brick element is formulated with six degrees of freedom at each node, representing three translational and three microrotational. Several case studies which have analytical solutions are investigated to determine the validity of numerical solutions generated by this model.